About the Festival

Liburnia Film Festival (LFF) is the first documentary film festival in Croatia and the only festival screening only the latest in Croatian documentaries. It takes place in open air in late August. This year LFF will be held, for the 15th time, from August 21st to August 25th 2017 at The Open Air Theatre in Opatija. LFF is organized by Association Liburnia Film Festival from Rijeka. Coorganiser of the festival is Restart from Zagreb, and partners of the festival are the Association Delta from Rijeka and Festivals Opatija. Festival friends are Association Filmaktiv from Rijeka, Institute of documentary film (IDF) from Prague, Balkan Documentary Centre and Balkan Documentary Distribution Network.

During five days of the festival, numerous audience enjoys around 20 documentaries every year, selected for the main cimpetition. Special program consists of the films made by Restart label production and of the off program. Films are selected by Oliver Sertić since 2007, and the awards are decided by a jury and the audience.

Festival has a competition character since the beginning (jury awards, audience awards and special mentions), while in 2013 industry awards were introduced for the first time in Croatia - for best director, best cinematographer, best editor and sound editing, in the attempt to point out the value of individual members of documentary film crews.

Education

Ever since its 3rd Edition, Liburnia Film Festival organizes free education program – Documentary Film Workshop in cooperation with Filmaktiv from Rijeka, and Fade In and Restart from Zagreb. In 2017, three education workshops are taking place: “Prvi put snimam” (“My First Filmmaking”) for amateurs, a "Filmmaking spelling book" for the children and Film" for high school children. Each day at noon public also has the chance to speak with autors (Coffee with the Author) and each afternoon to discuss relevant topics at round tables and discussions.

Accompanying Events by LFF Association

To a spread a story about good Croatian documentaries across the country, winning films from the previosu edition of the festival take a tour trough Croatian cities, in a program called "Liburnia sails."

Also, during the summer, citi of Rijeka becomes a playground for hidden screenings, a program called "Cinema by chance".